On Friday authorities in the provincial capital - about 75 kilometers (45 miles) from the border between Canada and the US state of Maine - had identified the two officers killed as Lawrence Robert Costello, 45, and Sara Mae Helen Burns, 43.

The incident sparked panic in the city as Canada grapples with rising gun violence, with some calling for a handgun ban.

The mass shooting is the second in the province in recent years, and comes only weeks after a man opened fire on July 22 in a bustling Toronto district, killing an 18-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl while wounding 13 other people.

In 2014, three federal police officers were killed and two more were injured after responding to an emergency call about an armed man roaming a residential neighborhood of nearby Moncton, New Brunswick.

A 28-hour manhunt ensued before police caught up to the suspect and arrested him, in what was described as the second-deadliest attack on Canadian police since four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers were ambushed on a Mayerthorpe, Alberta farm in 2005.